Updated Mon, May 7, 2012 11:25 AM

Photo by Photo by Frank LoCascio

Related Media

It was a long trip to The Bronx for the Midwood boys lacrosse team and, for a while Tuesday afternoon, it looked like the return journey was going to be even longer.

“It was an hour and a half trip out and it would have been a very long hour and a half trip back to Brooklyn,” Midwood coach Andrew Shipman said.

Desean Abraham made sure the trek home was a happy one, scoring the overtime winner for the Hornets in a come-from-behind 9-8 victory at Christopher Columbus.

Midwood goalie Albert Dmochowski wasn’t surprised Abraham netted the winner with 33.2 seconds left in the first overtime.

“He’s the heart of the team,” Dmochowski said.

Still, Abraham went a little unorthodox to score his team-leading 20th goal of the year.

“It was a spur-of-the-moment goal, it was left-handed and I don’t usually go left-handed, but I just felt it was necessary and I took it,” the senior middie said. “I saw an open shot and I just took it.”

Midwood (6-3) wouldn’t have been in a position to win in overtime if not for a spectacular save by Dmochowski in the waning seconds of regulation. The senior, who replaced Billy Ardamis at halftime, robbed Moner Mosa from point-blank range.

“I’m used to those shots,” Dmochowski said. “I actually feel most confident with those inside shots because I see the stick perfectly and could see exactly where it’s going. I just followed it with my stick and made the save.”

It was a huge momentum shift for the defending PSAL champions heading into overtime.

“That was an amazing save and it really got us pumped. He saved the game,” Abraham said. “That’s the best momentum a team can build off of.”

Midwood actually jumped in front, 2-0, on goals by Anthony Alexander and Giorgio Ardamis, but Columbus (1-9) rallied to score the next six goals, including four in a span of 2:10, to take a stunning 6-2 halftime lead.

Still, there was no panic on the Midwood sideline at the break.

“One of the good things about having a lot of seniors, winning the championship last year and we came back the first three games this year, we’ve been in this situation before,” Shipman said. “We know what we have to do and we knew if we played our game, the looks were going to come and that’s what happened.”

The Sharks, who lost to Midwood by a goal at Aviator Sports Complex in March, proved they are better than their record indicates. Four of Columbus’ losses were by two goals or less.

Mosa scored his third goal 20 seconds into the third quarter to give Columbus a 7-2 lead, but that’s when Midwood started to roar back.

“Once we realized we started losing against such an underdog team, we decided to get up and play like how we usually play,” Abraham said.

Back-to-back goals by Daniel Marroquin and Nick Dopyera’s first of two tallies cut the Hornets deficit to 8-5. Tyrell Harris McLaughlin, who entered the game with one goal, scored two straight in the fourth quarter and Dopyera netted the equalizer with 1:57 left in the fourth.

Thanks to Dmochowski’s save, Midwood had momentum heading into the first four-minute sudden death overtime and Abraham, who was relatively silent to that point, gave the Hornets their first lead since late in the first quarter.

“We had a couple of other options to run if Desean couldn’t take him up top,” Shipman said. “But he took him, he had his shot, it went right to the stick and he scored the game-winner.”